Krugman joins in with the general disappointment about the appointment of sanjay Gupta as Surgeon general. sorry it's a full quote, but it's a very hsort note and the point of his objection requires most of the writing.

NYT - Krugman - The trouble with Sanjay Gupta

So apparently Obama plans to appoint CNN's Sanjay Gupta as Surgeon General. I don't have a problem with Gupta's qualifications. But I do remember his mugging of Michael Moore over Sicko. You don't have to like Moore or his film; but Gupta specifically claimed that Moore "fudged his facts", when the truth was that on every one of the allegedly fudged facts, Moore was actually right and CNN was wrong.

What bothered me about the incident was that it was what Digby would call Village behavior: Moore is an outsider, he's uncouth, so he gets smeared as unreliable even though he actually got it right. It's sort of a minor-league version of the way people who pointed out in real time that Bush was misleading us into war are to this day considered less "serious" than people who waited until it was fashionable to reach that conclusion. And appointing Gupta now, although it's a small thing, is just another example of the lack of accountability that always seems to be the rule when you get things wrong in a socially acceptable way.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Did the FT article generate a spike in visits?

"Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease." - Kurt Vonnegut

Shirin Ebadi, Iranian feminist and winner of the nobel prize for peace is under attack.

Women's Learning Partnership - Growing demands for protection and guarantee of Shirin Ebadi's civil and political rights

The situation of Nobel peace laureate and human rights defender Shirin Ebadi grows increasingly critical. Over the last two weeks the organization she heads, Defenders of Human Rights Center, was shut down, false accusations of tax evasion were made against her in the media, her private law offices were raided and confidential case files seized, and on January 1st a mob of 150 demonstrated in front of her house in an orchestrated attempt to connect her to the Israeli actions in Gaza. Protestors began kicking the door to her home and vandalized the exterior of her property in an attempt to further intimidate her.

keep to the Fen Causeway

FT.com / Markets - Investors shun German bond auction

Investors shunned one of the most liquid and safest assets in the world on Wednesday as a German bond auction failed in a warning for governments seeking to raise record amounts of debt to stimulate their slowing economies.

It is the first eurozone bond auction of the year and an ominous sign of potential trouble ahead for governments around the world, with an estimated $3,000bn expected to be issued in sovereign debt this year - three times more than in 2008.

The auction of 10-year bonds failed to attract enough bids to reach the €6bn the government wanted to raise. Although a number of German bond auctions failed last year, it was almost unheard of before the credit crisis.

"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char

ADP Dec. report: - 693,000 jobs. I'd be interested to know how much of this is termination of Mass Layoff notice (June 2008). But not so interested to look it up and discriminate union and non-union jobs.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Who says Facebook is a waste of time. A friend of mine made a comment that her work needed a data entry person quickly. Within half an hour I have an interview booked for tomorrow afternoon.

keep to the Fen Causeway

I find that early January is a good time to look at the music of the past year as one only needs to browse some best of lists and then listen in on the various free services that exist on the internets. Never been easier. I very much enjoy the James Yorkston record When the Haar Rolls In. Here's the title track:

c/o Dean Barker at dKos

Shit, a webhost, Soapblox, has been hacked and the guys running it have decided they don't have the wherewithall to fight back  and have shut down. Iaking all the sites with it.

These include MyLeftWing (Mary Scott O'Connor's blog) and Pam's House Blend. These are big hitter sites. so we're not talking small potatoes.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Has this been noted yet?

End Times -Can America's paper of record survive the death of newsprint? Can journalism? The Atlantic
VIRTUALLY ALL THE predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print...

...The thinking goes that the existing brands--The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal--will be the ones making that transition, challenged but still dominant as sources of original reporting.

...what if The New York Times goes out of business--like, this May?

It's certainly plausible. Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company's debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper's future doesn't look good.

As much as I loathe poor news(paper) reporting, I fear what will inevitably replace it.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

Having been to London yesterday, I must say that St Pancras station is now a truly remarkable building, If I hadnt had a variety of places to go and people to meet, I could happily have wandered and gazed for hours. A true cathedral of the railways.

Give a politician an inch, and he'll think he's a ruler

Stop the War Coalition Online

Emergency national demonstration: Saturday 10 January

* National Demonstration: Saturday 10 January: Stop the Massacre : Israel Out of Gaza Assemble 12.30pm Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, March to Israeli Embassy, London W8

Give a politician an inch, and he'll think he's a ruler

I just spent an hour on trip logistics. While sitting on a couch, of course. Everything is online.

Singapore is a bit boring, but a nice intro to Asia. Asia lite, really. But I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore.

I am here until Saturday, then it's off to Melaka in Malaysia, then Kuala Lumpur and Penang after that.

Also on the A380 flight up here - I'm not going to say anything that hasn't already been reported, but the engines are quiet enough to be disturbing. Like, are they actually running? The plane glides down the runway and unceremoniously floats off into space. Crazy.

you are the media you consume.